A hedge fund manager recently found this in the cushions of his couch.

Many people have blamed hedge fund managers for the mortgage crisis and thus the current recession. That must be a lot of pressure for those people.

But don’t worry; Alpha Magazine says they are doing fine. They have their millions (or billions) of dollars to console them.

Still making the dough

It is true that some hedge fund managers, such as CEO-turned-pizza-delivery-specialist Ken Karpman, lost big time because of the financial meltdown. But that is the nature of the business. A few hedge fund managers lose out every year. Turns out, 2008 was a great year for hedge-fund managers — the third best year, earnings-wise, on record.

Pulling rank

But Alpha Magazine shows that, for the most part, it’s business as usual in the hedge fund management field. The top earner in the world among hedge fund managers, James Simons of Renaissance Technologies Corp., pulled in $2.5 billion last year. I don’t think he’ll be needing payday loans to keep his heat from being shut off anytime soon.

Alpha Magazine lists top 11 earnings

Alpha Magazine has collected information on hedge fund managers’ earnings for the past eight years. This year, those statistics are getting a bit more attention than usual. So far it has only printed the earnings of the top 11, but the magazine says it will spill the beans about the rest of the top 25 tomorrow.

The Top 11:

1. James Simons, Renaissance Technologies Corp. $2.5 billion
2. John Paulson, Paulson & Co. $2 billion
3. John Arnold, Centaurus Energy $1.5 billion
4. George Soros, Soros Fund Management $1.1 billion
5. Raymond Dalio, Bridgewater Associates $780 million
6. Bruce Kovner, Caxton Associates $640 million
7. David Shaw, D.E. Shaw & Co. $275 million
8. Stanley Druckenmiller, Duquesne Capital Management $260 million
9. (tie) David Harding, Winton Capital Management $250 million
9. (tie) Alan Howard, Brevan Howard Asset Management $250 million
9. (tie) John Taylor Jr., FX Concepts $250 million

Net worth

What's this guy so happy about? Oh, it's James Simons. He made $2.5 billion last year.

Alpha Magazine has the names of the other 14 hedge fund managers in the top 25, but not their earnings — yet. It does say that those 25 managers made a combined $11.6 billion in 2008. The stock market lost a third of its value last year, but hedge fund managers took home an average of $464 million each.